Richard and I turn our attention to the early cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien. Four of his films are now on MUBI and at least the first one is delightful: a romantic comedy not too different from those characteristic of American Cinema in the 1930s, but with broader humour and more pop songs. A delightful first work, very commercial …. and very different from what was to follow.

The podcast can also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

You can listen to another of Fong Fei Fei’s songs from the film here:

And here’s a  fab clip of Kenny Bee performing with his band “Wynners” in 1975:

Kenny now:

A report of Fong Fei-Fei’s death:

and you can follow up with a nice review of the film from Eastern Kicks: 

We found this comment by Robert Beeson on Twitter to be both amusing and true:

José Arroyo